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Chapter 3
“Then I should see His Grace off.”
Amber spoke to Grace in a calm tone, one that even carried a sense of dignity.
“It seems you still don’t understand the severity of the monster wave, even after my explanation. This is what happens when a young lady raised in a peaceful zone… His Grace must depart as soon as possible. There is no time for farewells.”
“I am well aware that the East suffers from monster waves every year.”
Amber remained unfazed by Grace’s rapid-fire words and continued speaking calmly.
“My words may have sounded naive. But I hope you understand that I said them for the sake of the East as well.”
Amber curled the corners of her eyes and smiled faintly.
“Now that I am married, I am the lady of the Talesto duchy. So I must do my duty. That duty surely includes encouraging His Grace and the knights as they set off on a arduous journey.”
At Amber’s calm response, Grace’s eyes narrowed into triangles.
*’This isn’t right.’*
Grace, who had come on Bella’s orders to crush the new bride’s spirit from the start, was greatly flustered by the situation not going her way.
*’She’s completely different from earlier.’*
It wasn’t as if Grace had acted rudely towards Amber without thought.
Earlier, when she had lightly provoked her while stamping the documents, it had been fine.
Amber had been a typical aristocratic young lady, overwhelmed and frightened by her new environment, unable to retort when spoken to harshly.
*’I was planning to properly train her tonight.’*
But something had happened while she waited alone in the bedroom, and Amber had changed into a different person.
“Very well. I will guide you to His Grace.”
Thinking she would have to report this to Bella, Grace decided to back down for now.
Amber merely draped a shawl over her wedding dress and followed Grace.
Stepping out of the bridal chamber, Amber looked around the ducal castle’s hallway with eyes full of fresh emotion.
When the First Prince had come to falsely accuse the East and hunt down the Talesto ducal family on the Emperor’s orders, the first thing he did was burn this place down.
The majestic Talesto Ducal Castle, steeped in the history of the East, had been reduced to embers in an instant by the royal family’s brutal knights.
*’I thought it was desolate and tiresome, but when it actually burned down, I was sad.’*
Amber soon shook her head to dispel her thoughts and continued walking.
The past was the past, and the present was the present.
There was no time to be obsessed with memories of the past. She had to adapt to the present as quickly as possible.
“This way.”
Grace descended the stairs, crossed the hall, and pointed to a door leading to the training ground.
“Once you go through that door, you will be able to see His Grace.”
Grace’s eyes as she said this were clearly mocking Amber.
She had brought Amber along because she said she wanted to see him off, but she didn’t think Amber would actually be able to do it properly.
*’Hmph, it’ll be a relief if she doesn’t get scared by His Grace’s icy demeanor and lock herself back in the bridal chamber.’*
The Duke of Talesto was cold even to his own stepmother.
There was no way he would welcome a bride forced upon him by the Emperor’s scheme. As evidence, hadn’t he already snubbed her by omitting the ceremony?
Everyone in the castle, including Grace, thought the Duke despised his wife.
That attitude from the Duke was precisely why the servants could treat Amber so poorly.
Amber walked past Grace, who was mocking her with a composed expression.
She found it amusing that Grace thought she knew nothing. Amber had already experienced ten long, tiresome years with these people.
Amber pushed the door open herself. The cold dawn wind rushed in, and she saw the knights gathered in the training ground.
“What’s going on? We were told not to interfere with the departure preparations…”
The knights turned their heads at the sound of the door opening, and all eyes instantly focused on Amber.
The knights’ eyes widened upon seeing Amber.
*’Isn’t that His Grace’s new bride? Why is that woman here?’*
It was clear they were all thinking the same thing.
Amber looked over each of the familiar faces gathered there.
The knights looked even shabbier than Amber remembered.
Even though their armor and weapons were kept as clean as possible, they couldn’t hide their age, and because they received no proper salary and were conscripted into every arduous battle, they looked utterly exhausted.
Most of the horses carrying the heavily armored knights were emaciated, as even hay for fodder was hard to come by.
*’I knew it, but it really is appalling.’*
Amber inwardly sighed.
Then, she met eyes with the Duke of Talesto, who was standing among the knights issuing orders.
The Duke of Talesto also looked very different from how Amber remembered him.
The Duke of Talesto—that is, Amber’s husband—was…
*’So young!’*
He was much younger than she remembered.
Having come back ten years into the past, it was only natural, but seeing her young husband in person felt strange.
Moreover, in her past life, Amber had first met her husband two years after stamping the marriage documents, so this was truly her first time seeing him at twenty-four.
*’Goodness, twenty-four. He’s so green and young.’*
At twenty-four, her husband was a youth who suited the name Calix better than the grand title of Duke of Talesto.
The navy-blue eyes that met hers sparkled with youthful rashness, and his lips were tightly set with tension, as if surprised by her sudden appearance.
But Calix, like the other knights, couldn’t completely hide his exhaustion.
Standing alone in the piercing cold of the dawn air, wearing shabby armor and leading the knights, her husband looked very distressed.
When he married Amber, Calix had been a rookie who had inherited the title of Duke of Talesto less than a month prior. They had delayed the inheritance until the wedding due to the conservative customs of the East, which didn’t recognize a person as a proper adult without a fiancée.
*’The reason my mother-in-law, Bella, could wield such great power was also because he had no wife.’*
She heard this was also his first time leading the knights on a campaign as the Duke.
*’But still, for him to look so distressed… Did I just feel sorry for ‘that Calix Talesto’?’*
Amber’s husband was not a pitiable person.
He was the pillar that supported the barren East, an incarnation of war who brought back miraculous victories every time he went on campaign.
During ten years of a horrendous marriage, Amber had replayed in her mind countless times the image of her husband who had been utterly cold to her.
Remembering the scene where, after their first night together, he had left the room without looking back, saying “Now it is irrevocable,” her momentary pity for him vanished instantly.
“It’s a pleasure to meet you.”
Since Calix didn’t seem likely to speak first, Amber curtsied to him.
Her pure white wedding dress spread elegantly, capturing the knights’ gazes.
“I am Amber Talesto, your wife, Your Grace. We stamped the documents, but this is the first time we see each other’s faces.”
At the word ‘wife,’ Calix’s face hardened stiffly.
Amber’s heart grew even colder, thinking that even if he disliked her, showing his displeasure so openly right in front of her was too much.
“I heard you were departing for a campaign, so I hurried out to see you off.”
Amber’s orange eyes sparkled calmly.
“See me off…”
Calix finally spoke.
*’His voice is young too.’*
The timbre and tone were similar to his past life’s, but the immaturity before the passage of time was unavoidable.
“That is not necessary.”
But young as he was, Calix was still Calix.
She had expected it, but seeing that he didn’t appreciate her farewell caused Amber’s eyes to narrow involuntarily.
In the past, she would have been intimidated by his cold words and retreated without a sound. But now, she was tired of bowing down.
“Not necessary, Your Grace?”
She straightened her back and spoke in an impeccably elegant Western-style accent.
In her past life, Amber had abandoned her original accent and spoken in the rough dialect of the East.
Because when the people of the East heard her original accent, they would whisper that she was acting superior and being pretentious.
*<Is she showing off because she came from a wealthy family?>*
*<Exactly. Does she still think she’s in the Viscountcy of Riat?>*
Bella and her maids had especially tormented Amber persistently.
To avoid being hated by them, Amber had stayed up all night with Xenia, correcting her pronunciation.
Thanks to that painstaking effort, even now, back from the dead, Amber could speak the Eastern dialect perfectly.
But now, Amber no longer felt the need to deliberately abandon her own accent.
*’No matter what accent I use, they should adapt to me. I don’t need to adapt to them.’*
She no longer wanted to diminish herself.
Amber looked straight at Calix. Calix’s eyes were wide open in surprise at her upright attitude.
“Surely you weren’t thinking of leaving the castle without even seeing the face of your new bride, whom you just married, were you?”
It was a question so aggressive it was almost harsh.
She thought that only by being this straightforward would her husband, colder than a blizzard, listen to her.
To put it simply, Amber’s strategy was successful. Much more than she had anticipated.
“Milady, I… it’s not that…”
Calix was flustered.
Amber stared in amazement at Calix, who was floundering and fumbling for words.
*’He’s getting flustered by something this minor?’*
She was surprised for a moment, but soon collected herself.
*’This man is Calix Talesto. Let’s not be mistaken.’*
Remembering how he had gotten angry and left when she first told him about her pregnancy, shouting “I never wanted an heir!”, her heart calmed down again.
“Your Grace.”
Amber caught Calix’s gaze, which had been darting around in confusion, and brought it back to her.
“If it’s not too presumptuous, may I say something before you depart? As your newlywed bride?”
“Speak.”
“Don’t go.”
Amber took a deep breath and spat out what she wanted to say in one go.
“Don’t… go?”
Calix now didn’t even try to hide his fluster.
The knights around him were the same. They stared blankly at Amber with surprised eyes, as if looking at a mythical creature.
“But the monsters…”
“Is Your Grace truly necessary for the subjugation?”
Amber cut off Calix’s words and asked.
“You may not know, Milady, but this is a very important matter in the East.”
Calix answered with a hardened face.
